PROPORTION
One of the most important of all the nine fundamental variables is proportion. This refers to proportion of one part of the body to another, of one part of the head to another. Each part of the body and of the head has its own particular function. Nature is orderly and systematic in all her work. She does not, therefore, try to digest food with the feet or pump blood with the hands. She does not try to use our stomachs as means of locomotion. Neither does she try to make us think with the backs of our heads.
No one needs to be told that the long, slender, wiry legs of the deer were made for swiftness, or that the huge, square,
powerful jaw of the bulldog was made to shut down with a vise-like grip that death itself can scarcely relax. These are crude examples of proportion. In our study and research we have learned to associate many fine gradations of differences in proportion with their corresponding differences in mental aptitudes and character.
EXPRESSION
Everything about a man indicates his character. Color, form, size, structure, texture, consistency, and proportion indicate almost entirely the man's inherent qualities. It is important for us to determine, however, in sizing up men, what they have done with their natural qualifications. This we do by observing Expression and Condition.
The cruder, simpler emotions are so frankly expressed that even a child or an animal can tell instantly whether a man is happy or loving, grieved or angry. These emotions show themselves in the voice, in the eyes, in the expression of the mouth, in the very way the man stands or sits or walks, in his gestures—in fact, in everything he does. In the same way, all of the finer and more elusive thoughts and emotions express themselves in everything a man says or does. Even when he does his best to mask his feelings, he finds that, while he is controlling his eyes and his voice, his posture, gestures, and even handwriting are giving him away. No living man can give attention to all of the modes of expression at once, and the trained observer quickly learns to discriminate between those which are assumed for the purpose of deception and those which are perfectly natural.
Transient emotions have transient expression, but the prevailing modes of thought and feeling leave their unmistakable impress just as surely as does a prevailing wind mould the form of all the trees growing in its path. The man who is sly, furtive, secretive, and fundamentally dishonest need not deceive you with his carefully manufactured expression of open-eyed frankness and honesty. If you have ever been "taken in" by a confidence man or a swindler, you either gave
very slight attention to his expression or, what is more likely, suspected him but hoped to "beat him at his own game."
CONDITION